Evacuations

When up to 27,000 Southeast Los Angeles County residents fled a toxic gas cloud early Saturday morning, they unwittingly formed one of California's largest-scale evacuations. Yet officials attributed the large numbers not to the severity of the incident, but to the density of Los Angeles County. As Northridge toxics expert Dr.

Forty-five people were evacuated from a hamlet near western Mexico's rumbling "Fire Volcano," which has spewed ashes almost three miles into the air, civil protection officials said Tuesday. The villagers were taken to a temporary shelter, civil protection officials said by telephone. The evacuations in the settlement of Juan Barragan came after an eruption Monday night.

Hundreds of people living downstream from a rain-swollen lake evacuated after a floodgate jammed on a dam for more than 12 hours. The gate was later repaired. By 10 p.m. Sunday, emergency officials allowed residents to return to their homes near Lake Manatee, east of Bradenton. Heavy rains since Wednesday forced flood watches in 18 counties and caused at least two other rivers to overflow.

The fires that have swept through Southern California have forced hundreds of thousands of residents to evacuate, triggered numerous road closures and prompted school officials to cancel classes throughout the region. The fires also have generated numerous relief efforts, including the opening of assistance centers. Many schools plan to resume classes Monday. Below is a partial list of the latest available information for the region. For more updates, check www.latimes.com.

Authorities ordered residents along the Santa Fe Springs-La Mirada border to evacuate their homes after a cloud of hydrochloric acid was reported Wednesday evening. A tank containing 4,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid began leaking about 8:30 p.m. in an industrial area at Marquardt Avenue and Borate Street in Santa Fe Springs and evacuations of an estimated 1,000 people were ordered in neighborhoods north of Rosecrans Avenue and east of Marquardt, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said.

Residents of more than 100 Napa County homes were under evacuation orders Saturday as a wildfire just east of St. Helena burned 300 acres of rolling hills scattered with wineries, fire officials said. More than 1,500 firefighters worked through Friday night battling the fire, which started at 5:45 p.m. near Deer Park. By 7 a.m. Saturday the blaze was 70% contained, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Daniel Berlant. Two structures burned and about 200 homes were threatened.

A high-rise state office building in Riverside was evacuated and several surrounding blocks cordoned off by police Tuesday morning after a bomb threat, authorities said. Riverside County Superior Court offices in the California Tower building received a call at 9:52 a.m. from a person who said there might be bomb in the building, said Officer Taylor Cooper, a California Highway Patrol spokesman. Authorities searched but did not locate an explosive, Cooper said.

An unusually heavy Rocky Mountain snowmelt coupled with spring rains have swelled the Missouri River and its dams to dangerously high levels, prompting thousands of North and South Dakota residents to evacuate and prepare for flooding. The rising river flowing through the Dakotas has strained infrastructure designed to protect communities in the Missouri River basin, said Michael Fowle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Aberdeen, S.D. "It's the perfect storm, but in the worst sense," Fowle said.

NEW YORK--Wet snow and heavy winds thrashed New York City on Wednesday, forcing new  evacuations in areas flooded by Superstorm Sandy last week and knocking out power to some areas where it had just been restored. At an afternoon briefing, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he ordered the evacuations of four nursing homes that together held more than 600 people in the hard-hit Rockaways. Volunteers were going door to door in low-lying areas of the city, including seafront areas in Brooklyn and in Staten Island, informing residents about the availability of emergency shelters.